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The Thread® - Books and Literary News

The Thread from MPR News

The Thread® is your source for book recommendations and other literary news.

Ask a Bookseller

Ask a Bookseller is a weekly series where The Thread checks in with booksellers around the country about their favorite books of the moment. Listen to Ask a Bookseller to find your next favorite book.

Big Books and Bold Ideas

Big Books and Bold Ideas is a weekly series hosted by Kerri Miller every Friday at 11 a.m., featuring conversations about books and other literary ideas. Listen to Big Books and Bold Ideas here.

Sign Up for The Thread® Newsletter

Sign up for The Thread newsletter to get reading recommendations from Kerri Miller and other bookworms around the MPR newsroom. Find reviews for new releases, as well as hidden gems you may have missed.

Talking Volumes

Talking Volumes is back for its 25th season. Join us at the Fitzgerald Theater for four special events with renowned authors, celebrating our anniversary with a special $25 ticket price for MPR members and Star Tribune subscribers. Buy tickets here.

Collect data, influence votes: 'If Then' traces the genesis of data-driven politics

Collect data, influence votes: 'If Then' traces the genesis of data-driven politics

In “If Then,” historian Jill Lepore tells the story of Simulmatics. Founded in 1959, the company's "people machine" used a computer program to predict the impact of various political messages.
by Dave Davies

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Netflix CEO embraces 'no rules,' but work is anything but chill

In his new book “No Rules Rules,” Reed Hastings argues that in order for a creative workplace to succeed, it needs as few policies and rules as possible. Others say the culture is demoralizing.
by Bobby Allyn

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Grand Jury issued criminal subpoenas in connection with John Bolton book

Grand Jury issued criminal subpoenas in connection with John Bolton book

The move signals the Justice Department has launched a criminal investigation surrounding the publication of “The Room Where It Happened” after an unsuccessful effort to block it from being published.
by Carrie Johnson

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A widow discovers that her marriage wasn't 'Monogamy'

A widow discovers that her marriage wasn't 'Monogamy'

As the central character struggles with grief and shock at her late husband's infidelity, author Sue Miller keeps deftly shifting what readers might anticipate to be the ending of this novel.
by Maureen Corrigan

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Long before Cambridge Analytica and Facebook, Simulmatics linked data and politics

Long before Cambridge Analytica and Facebook, Simulmatics linked data and politics

In “If Then,” author and New Yorker writer Jill Lepore unearths Simulmatics' story and makes the argument that the company paved the way for our 21st-century obsession with data and prediction.
by Shannon Bond

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'The House By The Lake' is a story of reconciliation — and the meaning of home

'The House By The Lake' is a story of reconciliation — and the meaning of home

A few years ago, Thomas Harding wrote a memoir centered on what became of his great-grandparents' German house. Now he's made it into a children's book about belonging, with the home his protagonist.
by Esme Nicholson

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Home sweet labyrinth: Susanna Clarke's mysterious 'Piranesi' will lock you in

Home sweet labyrinth: Susanna Clarke's mysterious 'Piranesi' will lock you in

It's been 16 years since Clarke wrote “Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell.” "The pressure of all the years when I hadn't written, and all the stories I hadn't written, weighed very heavily on me," she says.
by Ari Shapiro

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Woodward addresses criticism that he should've detailed Trump interviews earlier

Woodward addresses criticism that he should've detailed Trump interviews earlier

Journalist Bob Woodward has faced some criticism for not promptly sharing with the public what the president told him about the coronavirus in a series of interviews earlier this year.
by Barbara Sprunt

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Journalist Maria Hinojosa tells Latinos, silenced voices: 'We need you'

Journalist Maria Hinojosa tells Latinos, silenced voices: 'We need you'

The “Latino USA” host, who's spent a career covering those silenced in the media, now tells her own story in a new memoir. "We all have to work at making the immigrant story much more public," she said.
by Lulu Garcia-Navarro

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A West African fantasy with enveloping world-building

A West African fantasy with enveloping world-building

This week, bookseller Linda Stack-Nelson of Wild Rumpus Books for Young Readers in Minneapolis recommended the debut young adult novel “Raybearer” by Nigerian-American author Jordan Ifueko. 
by Emily Bright

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